Federal Labour Board Faces Backlog of Religious Exemption Hearings Over Vaccine Mandates

A pharmacist prepares a dose behind a counter lined with vials of COVID-19 vaccines in Toronto on June 18, 2021. Nathan Denette/The Canadian Press

The Federal Public Sector Labour Relations and Employment Board is facing years of hearings into complaints that COVID-19 vaccine mandates discriminated against federal employees’ religious beliefs, prompting the board to end in-person hearings to speed up the clearance of backlogs.

Board arbitrator Christopher Rootham noted the issue in his written decision on a federal employee’s grievance referred for adjudication.

“There are over 350 religious accommodation grievances currently active with the Federal Public Sector Labour Relations and Employment Board,” he wrote in March 2024, which was first covered by Blacklock’s Reporter.

He noted scheduling oral hearings for every instance of religious accommodation would be an “impossible burden for the employer, for the bargaining agents, and the Board,” and said all future cases will be determined through written submissions.

The grievance presided over by Rootham was filed by a finance officer at Global Affairs Canada, who asked for a religious exemption to the COVID-19 vaccine mandate, citing his Catholic faith.

“I am condemning myself and my relationship to my faith with God by letting others decide, influence, or coerce me into taking the vaccine, rather than following my conscience,” said the grievor, according to the arbitration document.

Rootham rejected the claim, saying the employee did not show he was a practising Catholic and “would have to demonstrate that his religious beliefs did not permit him to take the vaccine — not that his ‘conscience’ told him not to.”

The Treasury Board enforced its mandatory policy on COVID-19 vaccination from October 2021 to June 2022, which required that federal employees show proof they had been vaccinated for COVID-19, even if they were working from home. As of May 30, 2022, 98.5 percent of federal employees attested to being vaccinated with two doses.

Vaccine exemptions were permitted on medical grounds with a doctor’s note and on religious grounds with a signed attestation that subjected claimants to managers’ questions on spirituality and faith.

According to a 2022 Inquiry of Ministry document, 540 government workers were granted religious exemptions, while 357 workers obtained medical exemptions. Cabinet also disclosed in 2022 that 74 percent of requests for a religious exemption from COVID-19 vaccines were rejected. For medical exemptions, the rejection rate was 70 percent.

Federal employees had until Oct. 29, 2021, to either attest that they had been vaccinated or request accommodation. A 2021 Treasury Board memo said that managers needed to be “satisfied the employee holds a sincere religious belief” in order to grant a COVID-19 vaccine exemption.